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Penguin

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  1. Penguin
    Good grief... overrated dictionary.com: to rate or appraise too highly; overestimate Urban Dictonary: A term used to describe something that gets more hype and credit than it's actually worth. So due to personal opinion and anyone who hates anything that's well known, no matter how brilliant something is, if it gets a lot of media attention then there's always someone who will think it's overrated.
  2. Penguin
    Thanks foir vaguing that up for us.
  3. Penguin
    I read "battroid torso revealed", looked at the picture and thought "Where? And what's that chubby little plane above the VF-4?" Duh.... Anyway... WANT want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want want It's true... repeat the same word often enough and it loses all meaning. Kinda fun, though.
  4. Penguin
    It used to bug me, the flood of VF-1 variants while other VFs languish in obscurity ("Where's my 1/60 VA-3????!!!!" I know, I know.. only in my dreams.). Now I just embrace my growing Valkyrie legion and eagerly plan to cover every inch of shelf space with their glorious image... except the weathered versions. Just can't get into those. or... "How I learned to stop worrying and love the VF-1"
  5. Penguin
    That's an easy question to answer. Qos made great money but there was critical backlash, and its supporters are in the minority. I mean, I can see and acknowledge its flaws, but I love it anyway. Daniel Craig notwithstanding (as most critics continued to praise his performance), the turncoat agent at the very start sets it off for me, for some reason I really like the scene around the performance of Tosca, and the master plot resonated with me too. The villain as a character not so much, but I kinda liked him being a sorta boring functionary than "mwah-ha-ha" big bad evil. The banality of evil has always been a concept I find intriguing (aware as I am of the oxymoron in calling banality intriguing). First rule of film appreciation: Just because you liked it doesn't mean it's a good film, and conversely you not liking it doesn't mean it was bad. I mean, the whole "distancing" from QoS is all marketing anyway, as if it's some big deal. "You didn't like that one, but don't worry, this is all different." Yeah, sure. Few Bond films have referenced previous entries in the series. QoS being a direct sequel (as in events from the previous film carry over) has only happened once before, with Connery's Bond seeking revenge for Traci's death making Diamonds Are Forever more or less a direct sequel to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. So, really, Skyfall is just back to business as usual for the Bond franchise. I just hope they ignore those critics piping up about missing the comedic tones of earlier franchise entries. Sweet Jeebus protect us from Roger Moore nostalgia at least a little while longer. I was just getting back into this...
  6. Penguin
    Definitely, and most definitely. My poor, aching, wallet... Eh... who am I kidding. I'll buy these and never look back.
  7. Penguin
    Absolutely! Amidst the interstellar travel, alien engineers, suspended animation, and vicious, evil tentacle whatever-that-is, it's curve-enhancing spacesuits that will totally prevent me from taking the movie seriously. I mean really, what kind of fools do costume designers take us for? Yeesh...
  8. Penguin
    Terrific. A film I was looking forward to delayed the better part of a year for a process I despise. I looove coroporate Hollywood.
  9. Penguin
    "Benchmarks" for superhero movies are a totally subjective, personal viewpoint. There's no right or wrong. Much as I love Chris Reeves' classic Superman the Movie, I find the wimpy Clark Kent cringe-inducing and, as a villain, I find Hackman's well-acted but over the top Luthor so camp he belongs opposite Adam West. Times and tastes change so much, that really I could never compare Superman the Movie to The Avengers in a "which is the better superhero movie" manner. The expectations for what a superhero movie should be have changed so much, it does both of them a disservice. Then again, I can also watch West in Batman the Movie, Keaton in Batman, and Bale in Batman Begins all in the same day and enjoy each of them for what they are. The epic prestige movies of the past were sunk by themselves, to some degree. Failures like Cleopatra helped drive the studios away from that sort of epic. The end of the studio system, where the egos of moguls were enough to get a film made, closed the coffin on them as movie-making became a purely corporate enterprise. The only reason films like Apocalypse Now snuck in the interim was the corporate gang hadn't found their footing yet. In the here and now, perverse as it is, the potentially more discerning tastes of older moviegoers, who may appreciate more movies like the epics of yore, have driven studios into the arms of a less-discriminating market who will buy a ticket to anything with enough explosions and spectacle in the trailer. Truth is, older moviegoers don't attend in the numbers they used to, for any variety of reasons, and in the process dropped themselves out of consideration. You vote with your dollars, and they don't spend as much money, so they don't matter. In the end, bemoaning the type of film that gets the big financing these days is basically bemoaning the market-driven economy. Personally, I don't find tilting at windmills all that much fun. I enjoy films like Avengers for what they are, cherish gems like Drive or Lost In Translation when they come along, and cheer loudly when something like Prometheus appears that just might marry high concept to spectacle once again.
  10. Penguin
  11. Penguin
    I had no problem with Spacey's performance, but I thought "crazy land-mogul Lex" was a tired and done concept. Hackman's Lex evolved when the character was kinda in limbo between the hackneyed mad scientist and the eventual evil corporate magnate who could never be indictably linked to his crimes. Continuing it into Superman Returns was poorly done and his "master plan" was ridiculous. Genius Lex Luthor didn't think a Blackhawk full of marines could wipe out his half dozen thugs and drop him over the side of his oh-so-valuable dead black island?
  12. Penguin
    I can empathize with that. Having Char on the side of the angels in Zeta was cool, then having him dive headlong into "let's destroy the Earth" mode again a few years after is a little of a letdown.
  13. Penguin
    Lessee... Fox has X-Men, Daredevil, and Fantastic Four, and Sony has Spider-Man and, through Columbia, Ghost Rider... not sure if Disney will be chafing at the bit to get that last one back. I wonder how many of those licenses are based on fixed term, and how many can be extended as long as the owning studio keeps making movies?
  14. Penguin
    As far as I know 20th Century Fox still has the FF license. With all the money Marvel films are making, I can't see Fox or Sony letting their options lapse if they can help it... unless Disney pays through the nose to get them back.
  15. Penguin
    Without a doubt, comics readers will appreciate these movies in a different way, although I don't think comic knowledge is all that necessary to make "sense" of the movies per se. I think being a reader affects your perspective and where your suspension of disbelief draws the line. For example, I've heard more than one person, none of whom are comic readers, comment on Cap boosting Widow and the aerobatics that ensued as affronting their credulity, while comic readers take that sorta over-the-top action as par for the course. I've also heard a lot of comments about Iron Man 2 and Thor faulting them for having too much material that was lead-in to Avengers. On the flip side, most comics readers I know are so used to having all their heroes in the same universe that those ties were considered positives, it being previously unheard of for one superhero movie to even remotely acknowledge the comic universe it came from. No one in a Batman movie mentions Lexcorp, or refers to Gotham in a Superman movie. To finally have even one superhero movie, let alone 6 and counting, that acknowledges and even cross-references another is an exciting and new development.
  16. Penguin
    I've been reading Avengers comics sporadically for decades and continuously since "Heroes Reborn" in 1997, and it doesn't really mean all that much in relation to the films. None of the comics provide specific back story for the movies. Just character and story "inspiration".
  17. Penguin
    Know that what follows is simply a difference of opinion, and if I've misinterpreted your stance, please correct me. Injecting death and loss out of belief that purely by its inclusion a story has impact or meaning would be just as phony and gratuitous as any cheesy, over the rainbow, deus ex machina contrivance. To have meaning, the events of a story, good or bad, should evolve out of the characters that drive it and the themes it's attempting to serve. There is a disturbing tendency to dismiss any positive sentiment in a story as shallow, vapid, forced, or otherwise without merit... that depth can only come from negative experiences. I remember an article or interview with the makers of Lord of the Rings discussing that they strongly considered killing a major character in the final battle (I believe Gimli was the favoured victim) because, well, it's a war, and shouldn't one of them die? In the end, they concluded it was okay for the good guys to actually live, that after all the other struggle in the story, survival was a reasonable reward. At hearing that I gave a little cheer inside. Killing off a character without meaning or intent, for no more reason than "gee, shouldn't we?", would be completely empty... a pointless sacrifice. This isn't to say that death and "harsh reality" don't have a place in storytelling, or that they can't be used to tremendous effect. Just that they should be applied with meaning and intent, not tossed in to "make it real". In the specific case of The Avengers, expecting Marvel to bump off a major character in the prime of their profit-making potential is simply, vastly, unrealistic.
  18. Penguin
    Fair enough, but there is something to be said about criticizing a movie for not being what it was never going to be. The Avengers was never going to be that movie. Neither will any other movie based on a top comic property. The closest you'll get is some ambiguity in outcome, like Nolan's Batman films. I have to take some issue with this idea, depending on what you mean by "harsh". I think to touch people you need realism in your characters (not that I'm implying Avengers delivered this, but in general). Films like My Neighbour Totoro have left lasting impressions on those who view them, and I certainly wouldn't characterize them as containing "harsh" realism. On the flip side, if you do inject harshness without characters you empathize with, you end up with self-indulgent angst.
  19. Penguin
  20. Penguin
    You've a right to be proud. K-On! rocks! In other news, Disney has announced a release date of May 22nd for Secret World of Arrietty, Castle in the Sky, and Whisper of the Heart on Blu-Ray.
  21. Penguin
    Just saw it this afternoon. Tremendous fun. Action, humour, and character.
  22. Penguin
    Never saw G Gundam... was the windmill blade at least able to chew armour? The Canadian Lumber Gundam rocked the dual axes. Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia!
  23. Penguin
    Getting somewhat overshadowed by Avengers assembling today, but happy tidings nonetheless. Wonder when Hallmark will start producing greeting cards?
  24. Penguin
    Hobbylink Japan and Squadron.com fill in the blanks that my local hobby stores don't.
  25. Penguin
    Yeah... gotta say, fighters smaller than 1/72 just don't grab my interest anymore.
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